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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOLSTOI'S REPLY TO THE RUSSIAN CHURCH by CHARLES LOUIS HENRY WAGNER

First Line: YOU URGE ME TO REPENT--AYE, AND OF WHAT
Last Line: I'VE NOTHING TO REPENT.—YOU MUST REPENT.
Subject(s): ORTHODOX EASTERN CHURCH, RUSSIAN; REPENTANCE; TOLSTOY, LEO (1828-1910); RUSSIAN CHURCH; PENITENCE;
You urge me to repent—Aye, and of what
Shall I repent? What evil have I done?
Who is there from amongst the priestly throng
Which has renounced me dares to say
That I have ever spoken but the truth,
That I have ever taught what was not so,
Or that I e'er have stultified my soul
For gold or gain? And yet you say repent.

O, whited sepulchres, whose outward forms
Are fair indeed for fools to gaze upon,
Tear from your eyes that veil which hides the sight
Of a new birth. A grand awakening
Of people free, unshackled by my might.
The bruised and shattered gods of ignorance
Are lying all around, and only you
Are blinded to the sight.—Tear off that veil.

Behold in me a man by God ordained
To preach humility, and peace and love,
To sacrifice, if need be, every thought
But that which glorifies the lowly soul
And makes the peasant of the moor a king
As great as he who dons the royal robes
Of earthly thrones. The thought that God is Love,
And Love, not creeds, can save the peasant's soul.

You urge me to repent. Of what, I pray?
Doth not the spirit of the truth I preach
Cause you to blush and hang your head in shame
To think that while I'm on my dying bed
You dare ask this of me? Be gone, you dogs,
Go fawn and kneel before the robes of state,
But leave me with my God.—I fear not death,
I've nothing to repent.—@3YOU@1 must repent.



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